Sunday:We arrived into Cozumel after a long long long long (did i mention “long”?) night which included a two hour drive after a graduation party, moving stuff into my attic at home, an hour of sleep, and waking up at 4am.

Luckily there wasn’t too much hassle when traveling, with on time flights in DC and Charlotte we arrived in Cozumel at about noon. We got to the hotel and were greeted with a room that was ready to my suprise. Reviews reviews on TripAdvisor about the Park Royal Cozumel were pretty good overall, but the checkin was where most people complained. “Veinticinco veintiuno” (2521) was our room, had a great view and vacation had officially begun!

Our first dinner at the Park Royal, was at their Mexican Restaurant. It was okay… and we will still laugh if anyone mentions “Flan”…. hahaha

Monday:Today was our first attempt at eating at the breakfast buffet which looks beautiful! (and tastes incredibly medicore), but we got by just fine on it.

We did a snorkeling tour with “Angel” of the Activities staff, which was pretty cool after we figured out Kristen’s new mask. He stuffed a bagel inside a water bottle and we used that to chum. Hopefully we’ll get some good underwater pics once they are developed.

We decided to walk a little south of our hotel and check out the area by the cruise ship pier… not much there, so caught a taxi into town where we got these killer handstands downtown…

along the water in San Miguel…

and deeper into San Miguel.

After it was getting dark, we popped over to Tony Romes for dinner which we both enjoyed. Kristen had some kind of fish, and I had the 1/2 rack of ribs. It was all really good, and we met Tony Rome himself who was a nice guy.

Tuesday:We rented a jeep…

and drove around the island.

We snorkeled in the Dzul Ha reef, and hung out at the San Francisco Beach Club…

…and the “Bob Marley bar”…

…and checked out the Punta Sur Lighthouse.

Stopped along the east (Atlantic) coast…

…and had our last stop on the east at Coconuts.

Wednesday:This was a relaxing day where we laid out and enjoyed drinks. We met a nice couple from B.C. Canada named Forrest and Cassy when playing volleyball and hanging out in the infinity pool.

While laying out we spotted this awesome rainbow and had to get a handstand.

Park Royal Hotel (and a rainbow)

Thursday:SCUBA diving! It was pretty awesome.

Used Aqua World which was adjacent to our hotel, and was 695 pesos for a 2 tank dive. He said the wet suit would be another $16 US dollars, and that with 81 degree F water, I wouldn’t need it.

First dive was at the Santa Rosa Wall. My dive buddy was also our divemaster, Esteban. We went down about 80ft, and then up to 50ft for a total of about 45 minutes. This was my first ocean dive, and first drift dive but it went real smoothly.

Second dive was at the Tormentos Reef which was a little shallower at 50ft. It was about 45 minutes and by the end, I was starting to get cold without a wetsuit.

Underwater highlights:

I didn’t look like a fool my first time in the ocean!

Sea Turtle

HUGE lobsters

Large shark

Big fish

Colorful fish

Beautiful reefs

That night we went to “Tiki Tok” downtown and did some Salsa dancing. The live music was great.

Friday:Went to the Isle of Passion (Isla de Pasion) with our new Candian friends. We took a little boat out here and got to hang out for the day. We were told that the Corona commercial was actually filmed here which was pretty neat. About 40 people came from the cruise ships but had to leave around 245pm to get back to the ship. This meant an entire island for ourselves until 5pm, which was pretty killer.

La Isla de Pasion

Saturday:Took a taxi from the hotel to the airport for $12 witih tip after breakfast. Bought some Herradura tequila from the duty free shop, and headed back to the US.